Cactus prices higher than ever

[keith]

Inflation or what ? 500 dollar Copiapoas I used to see for 8 bucks , Ariocarpus at 300 dollars I used to buy for 20 bucks . Sellers buy up all cactus from retailers and resell them. Miles2go has sold out so fast this year I bet they are all being resold on ebay .

I think its everywhere , housing, food, everywhere. Cactus as a inflation hedge , like beanie babies but better. Until they rot on a windowsill.

Saw some more excellent habitat videos from " crime pays but botany doesnt" out in west Texas. Echinomastus mariposa nice shots of that cactus in flower plus all the usual like epithelantha and ariocarpus. I'm guessing filmed in March because of the flowers on the Echinomastus. You can hear the road noise so its not remote hard to get to areas but he does mention hes trespassing.. Not a great Idea in west Texas.

[DaveW]

Plants collected from the wild kept prices down pre CITES since of course the dealer did not have to spend many years growing them. Now virtually all of the slower growing species represent many years cultivation by the dealers or those who purchase from them. Also I don't know about the USA but we are going through a cactus fad here in the UK at the moment and until "the interior decorators" and "fashionistas" move on to a new plant fad it will continue to inflate cactus prices.

[EliWhitney3140]

It's hard to believe that you could ever buy a Copiapoa for 8 dollars

[Download]

Yeah, I think you might be exaggerating a bit. Prices have gone up though, but it's due to increased demand. Cacti and succulent collecting is very popular right now.

Reselling is a massive problem though. When my local hardware and nursery stores have them, monkey tails retail for $5-$10 each, but they don't last long as some dipshit buys all of them to resell on Facebook for $30-$50 each. It's actually annoying to watch people give money to these scalpers.

[DaveW]

Yes the main users of Facebook and Ebay are usually the newcomers or those less experienced in the hobby who have not yet discovered the specialist nurserymen network therefore they pay stupidly high prices for plants they believe rare. Particularly if they are listed as "rare".

We now have establishments in our capital cities that cater more for the interior designer or house plant market where even a flat padded Opuntia goes for £15. These are not really aimed at genuine cactus hobbyists but those wanting to make a statement as to their personal wealth or how fashionable the interior design of their rooms are. I wonder sometimes how long these cacti last in the interior of rooms, but then our plants are often a long time dying if they don't rot?

I see in some the pot is also sold separately so presumably that is just the price of the plant?

https://www.prickldn.com/online-shop/

https://www.timeout.com/london/blog/sev ... sit-051117

If you live in expensive big cities you can expect to pay over the odds if you shop there. Much cheaper to buy from specialist dealers elsewhere by post.

[keith]

maybe

[MikeInOz]

Crazy! I sold a copiapoa that size on ebay a couple of years ago for about $25..

[BennieAnTheJets]

Yeah, there is a house plant craze going on right now - philodendron, hoya, etc. are selling for hundreds and even thousands of dollars, especially variegated varieties - it's due to COVID and I guess young people not being able to afford a home and instead focusing their attention on attainable house plants for collections in the apartments - also social media hypes - on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram where people post perfect photos of plants that may be hard to find and/or hard to maintain once purchased. Still people want them and the prices have gone crazy. Yes, plants that cost 8.- a couple of years back sell for thousands now. Supply and demand. Suddenly thousands of people want one kind of plant and growers can't keep up with the supply. I just saw a "wet stick", which is a one-node stem cutting with no leaves, of Monstera albo variegata for 250 dollars. The whole plant used to be much less than that. People who can't afford a cutting with a leaf on it have moved to buying a piece of stem that can grow into a plant with a little know-how and a little luck, but not always.

It is nice that plants have been discovered by so many and hopefully bring some peace and joy. The flip side of that is abusive pricing (new house plant hobbyists may be led to believe that the plants are really worth as much as they are sold for since they have no idea what the prices were just a short time ago and probably will be again when the growers catch up and some of the cuttings sold now are half-dead or will die because they are completely white and have no green on them - some sellers are taking advantage of people's ignorance and trust) and an annoyance to people who have been in the house plant hobby for years before it was discovered by so many - many going into it too fast and the whole community being upset since "normal" trading and producing and buying and selling is unrealistic at the moment.

Some crooks, but mostly good people, I found on Etsy and ebay and nurseries and growers. Steve's Leaves has started to auction plants off since they used to get batches out but their website crashed from so many buyers trying to get the plants immediately when they became available.

A lot of the high priced plants do grow rather fast, but not fast enough for the demand, at the moment. I don't think the crazy plant prices at the moment are a reflection of inflation in general but rather an odd house-plant phenomenon.

I was hoping the cactus market would be spared, but maybe not. Most people aren't interested in cacti or think of them as just one plant: a cactus.

[EliWhitney3140]

I have noticed there are still some sellers out there who are still asking very reasonable prices, you just have to look hard to find them. I also don't have any problem calling out sellers who are asking exorbitant amounts for cactus.

[Mrs.Green]

As a ‘new’ enthusiast, I am tempted every time a see a species I don’t have and there is certainly not to many cacti on offer in the few flowershops in my town. So when I saw a big , single pad with fruits on ( a flatpadded Opuntia of some species) I got tempted, even though I was thinking that maybe wasn’t a good idea, sizewise. Well ...I may be enthusiastic but not that crazy..I hardly belived it when I was told the price; 599,- NOK which is close to £52...

[BennieAnTheJets]

As a ‘new’ enthusiast, I am tempted every time a see a species I don’t have and there is certainly not to many cacti on offer in the few flowershops in my town. So when I saw a big , single pad with fruits on ( a flatpadded Opuntia of some species) I got tempted, even though I was thinking that maybe wasn’t a good idea, sizewise. Well ...I may be enthusiastic but not that crazy..I hardly belived it when I was told the price; 599,- NOK which is close to £52...

I don't know if that works in your area but when I was a kid in Germany I used to go around the village and stop by people's houses that had cacti and offer to trade a piece of mine for a piece of theirs, if they had many pups on theirs. Being a kid helped, I guess. Not sure if people would be so friendly to an adult, but maybe. I started and grew my collection that way.

Or an ad in a local paper or with a local library may help to get enthusiasts together and trade some plants. Kind of hard with COVID, but we had a local library group that did a spring and a fall plant exchange here - easy to organize one - we always e-mailed wish lists out before the meeting and I got some cacti sometimes. Sometimes even big ones, since people wanted to get rid of the entire plant that hurt their fingers.

If you don't have anything to trade, sometimes people are willing to give away pieces for free because their plants have grown too big and they love the idea of someone else growing a piece of their plant extras - that was before the plant craze but maybe with cacti you may still find such people who just want to share a piece for fun.

[BennieAnTheJets]

Wow - I just saw a tiny rooted piece of stem for 755.-

https://www.etsy.com/listing/1024346045 ... rs=1&cns=1

That plant grows up a huge tree, normally. Now 2 inch pieces sell for over 700.- dollars! Crazy!

It's just a Monstera with a color variegation: Monstera Borsigiana Aurea - the latest craze, I guess.

[Mrs.Green]

Wow - I just saw a tiny rooted piece of stem for 755.-

https://www.etsy.com/listing/1024346045 ... rs=1&cns=1

That plant grows up a huge tree, normally. Now 2 inch pieces sell for over 700.- dollars! Crazy!

It's just a Monstera with a color variegation: Monstera Borsigiana Aurea - the latest craze, I guess.

As a ‘new’ enthusiast, I am tempted every time a see a species I don’t have and there is certainly not to many cacti on offer in the few flowershops in my town. So when I saw a big , single pad with fruits on ( a flatpadded Opuntia of some species) I got tempted, even though I was thinking that maybe wasn’t a good idea, sizewise. Well ...I may be enthusiastic but not that crazy..I hardly belived it when I was told the price; 599,- NOK which is close to £52...

I don't know if that works in your area but when I was a kid in Germany I used to go around the village and stop by people's houses that had cacti and offer to trade a piece of mine for a piece of theirs, if they had many pups on theirs. Being a kid helped, I guess. Not sure if people would be so friendly to an adult, but maybe. I started and grew my collection that way.

Or an ad in a local paper or with a local library may help to get enthusiasts together and trade some plants. Kind of hard with COVID, but we had a local library group that did a spring and a fall plant exchange here - easy to organize one - we always e-mailed wish lists out before the meeting and I got some cacti sometimes. Sometimes even big ones, since people wanted to get rid of the entire plant that hurt their fingers.

If you don't have anything to trade, sometimes people are willing to give away pieces for free because their plants have grown too big and they love the idea of someone else growing a piece of their plant extras - that was before the plant craze but maybe with cacti you may still find such people who just want to share a piece for fun.

Wow..thats just crazy..my example is a giveaway in comparison! But really,, can you blame the sellers? If people are willing to pay such ridiculous prices for a single node, I guess people who aren’t already very well off, couldn’t be blamed? The craze will pass almost certainly and we who don’t wont or can’t pay such prices will have a chance too


Unfortunately few of my neighbours seems to got bitten by cacti or plants at all.. In fact I can’t remember when I have seen cacti in any windows around here and I don’t feel for knocking on strangers doors asking; ‘You shouldn’t by any chance happen to have cacti?’ I may have gotten off with it as a kid as you mentioned but now..nahh , I don’t think so

In fact I don’t know anyone IRL who are interested in growing cacti for ‘real’ i.e not just buying a decorative plant who last as long as it lasts.

I am not on any of the popular soscial medias as Fb, insta , etc. But thank you for your suggestions which could prove helpful for others

[BennieAnTheJets]

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[BennieAnTheJets]

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